Four of the area’s high school boys basketball teams opened their seasons on the same night- and on the same court, too.
In a Friday-night tripleheader at Onondaga Community College’s Allyn Hall, two reigning Section III champions, Christian Brothers Academy and Bishop Grimes, faced each other in the featured game, this after Fayetteville-Manlius took on Utica Proctor and Jamesville-DeWitt met Institute of Technology Central.
The private-school showdown would go in favor of Grimes, who nearly surrendered a nine-point lead in the fourth quarter, but held on to defeat CBA 70-67 by having its defense keep the Brothers get off a tying 3-point shot as the clock ran out.
Allyn Hall was close to full for the clash between CBA, the two-time defending sectional Class A champions moved up to AA this winter, and Grimes, who went to last year’s state Class B final four and also received a promotion, up to Class A for 2016-17.
Kevin Underwood took over for the Brothers in the first quarter, netting 13 points on a variety of shots. This helped CBA overcome a 10-5 deficit and Shawn Gashi’s seven points to inch in front, 16-15.
They continued to go back and forth the rest of the half. Helped by Gashi’s 14 first-half points, Grimes grabbed a 32-28 lead, but the Brothers fought back and, with Jack Carpenter’s running lay-up to beat the halftime horn, went up by two, 36-34.
As CBA keyed on Gashi, Dom Delvecchio took off in the third quarter, his back-to-back 3-pointers launching an 11-point outburst that pushed Grimes to a 56-51 advantage with one period left.
The margin grew to eight, 59-51, on another Gashi 3-pointer, and from there the Brothers tried to chase Grimes down, but kept getting thwarted. Gashi’s leaping steal and breakaway layup with four minutes left made it 66-57 and CBA also hurt by missed free throws and a shot clock violation with two minutes to play.
And still, the Brothers nearly caught up. Down by four, 68-64, CBA got within one on Paul Aversa’s’ 3-pointer with 19.1 seconds to play. Grimes worked the ball until Lucci Vigliotti was fouled with 9.3 seconds left and made both of those free throws.
The Cobras called time-out, and instead of fouling a CBA player before any of them could take a shot, they simply pressured and prevented a shot as the horn sounded.
Gashi finished with 22 points, while Vigliotti earned 14 points and Delvecchio gained 13 points. Underwood shattered his personal-best total with 29 points as Aversa earned most of his 15 points in the second half.
Just before CBA and Grimes met, it was F-M against Utica Proctor, the debut for new head coach Jason Dudzinski after Tom Blackford returned to his first coaching home at Hamilton. Here, a late scoring drought would prove costly for the Hornets in a 61-56 defeat to the Raiders.
Neither side could sustain an early run as the game was tight through most of the first half. Then F-M reeled off nine straight points in the middle of the second quarter as part of a 13-3 spurt, all of which created a 31-23 Hornets lead at the break.
Instead of getting away, though, F-M let Proctor work through its drought and then find itself late in the third period thanks to a 15-4 run, leaving the Hornets behind, 42-41, heading to the final quarter.
When it counted, F-M could not do more than string together free throws in between similar trips to the line that the Raiders converted. In particular, Tim Zapisek nad Jawaan Crouch, who made plenty of baskets early, struggled far more amid Proctor’s growing pressure on every shot.
For more than five minutes in the fourth quarter, F-M went without a field goal, not breaking that drought until the final minute, by which point Proctor used a string of free throws to hang on.
Jawaan Crouch finished with a team-high 22 points, while Tim Zapisek earned 13 of his 15 points in the first half. Ryan Salzberg earned 12 points. For the Raiders, Landon Johnson poured in 25 points and Orion Anyango added 15 points.
It was J-D that went first, though, against Institute of Technology Central, with the Red Rams’ second season under the direction of head coach Jeff Ike commencing with a back-and-forth battle decided by Buddy Boeheim’s big fourth quarter that led to a 66-55 victory over the Eagles.
Fueled by 11 first-quarter points from senior forward Matt Carlin and eight points from Buddy Boeheim, J-D bolted out to a 24-8 lead. ITC countered with a charge of its own, sparked by Amir Holmes and TrVon Balaam combining to hit five 3-pointers in the second period.
All told, the Eagles outscored the Rams 33-11 after that initial surge, moving out in front 41-35 by halftime. But none of that momentum carried over into the the third quarter as J-D blanked ITC for more than three minutes and sneaked back in front on three different occasions.
They went to the fourth quarter tied, 48-48, and again the Eagles went cold, just when Boeheim took over. He scored 14 consecutive points, giving him 25 for the night, and ITC could not answer it.
Helping out, Darvin Lovette picked up 18 points, while Carlin overcame early foul trouble to finish with 15 points. Terence Echols finished with eight points.
A day later, F-M returned to OCC and lost again, 72-67, to Westhill, unable to recover from a 14-point third-quarter deficit despite a massive effort from Salzberg, who poured in 30 second-half points and finished with 39 points overall.
However, no other Hornets player scored in double figures, and the Warriors proved deeper and more balanced. Owen Matkuas had 21 points, while Kamren Jackson got a double-double of 16 points and 11 rebounds, plus five assists. Braeden Elmer added 12 points and four assists as Sean Dadey (nine points), John Geer (eight points) and Antonio Scrimale (six points) gave the Warriors further scoring balance.
Far from all this, East Syracuse Minoa opened Friday with a 66-46 defeat to Auburn, outscored in every quarter despite Gabe Holloman constantly drawing contact and earning 11 of his 24 points at the free-throw line. Emir Karic had seven points, with Kevin Richardson adding six points.
